


Who (What) Is More Important?

by DJH1950



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: AU- Samaritan's gone and everyone's alive!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:24:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13164003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJH1950/pseuds/DJH1950
Summary: Root and Shaw have a disagreement over the Machine's role in their lives. Some angst but have you read me?





	Who (What) Is More Important?

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted over on Tumblr for Shoot Secret Santa and I wanted it on here.

Shaw was cleaning her Nano when the door to her apartment opened. She picked up the .45 she kept loaded while cleaning any and all of her weapons and turned toward the door. As she raised the 1911 toward the intruder, she recognized the intruder and reluctantly lowered the gun after a brief internal argument.

“Root.”

The tall hacker swung through the door and into the living room. Her left arm hung at an odd angle indicating this wasn’t a social visit. The Machine’s Analog Interface had a strained smile on her face, her eyes flashed with pain.

“Hi Sameen, think you could reset this shoulder? Oh, and while you’re at it, I think there’s a bullet wound right above where I dislocated it. Through and through, but I could use a stitch or two.”

Shaw tilted her head at the bathroom.

“Get in there and take off your blouse, I’ll be in as soon as I reassemble this piece.”

“Jeez Sam, you could buy me dinner, or at least a drink first.”

Root’s smirk, coupled with her words caused the former ISA killer to roll her eyes. A thought from her childhood slipped unbidden into her mind.

_Shaw’s mother catches little Sameen crossing her eyes and making faces in the bathroom mirror._

_“You know Sameen, if you do that enough, your eyes could get stuck like that.”_

_Was it possible for my eyes to get stuck in a permanent ‘roll’? If she stays around long enough, I may just find out._

“Just get in the bathroom, nerd, I’ll be in in a minute to repair the damage.”

Five minutes later, Shaw was scrubbing her hands while Root sat shirtless on the toilet.

“Sam, do you think we’ll be doing this in ten years?”

“You keep at this for ten years Root, you’re going to be in a nursing home. You can’t survive the pace nor the collateral damage. In fact, if you don’t ease up, you’ll be dead in five years or less.”

“She needs me Sam… I’m the only one who will do whatever she asks without question.”

Shaw, taken by surprise at the anger that boiled up within her upon hearing Root’s words, turned on her in anger.

“So where does that leave us? What do I do when the day comes and you walk out of here on a mission for your AI goddess and never come back. You say you’ll do what she asks without question…. what happens when she asks you to sacrifice yourself?

“You think you can just waltz in here every couple of weeks, have me patch you up, stay a few days and then disappear to who knows where doing who knows what and have me not dread the day when you don’t come back?”

Root stared up at the Persian firecracker, eyes wide.

“Careful Shaw, someone might think you cared.”

Shaw shook her head.

“Well, it’s obvious you don’t.”

The hacker looked at her like she’d been slapped. Tears shone in the tall brunette’s eyes but she refused to let them fall. She shook her head slowly, then looked down at the floor.

The next twenty minutes were spent in uncomfortable silence as Shaw disinfected, stitched and bandaged the bullet wound, then took Root’s left hand in both of hers.

“This is going to hurt- and not in a good way.”

Without further warning, the former doctor pulled the hacker’s arm until pain caused searing white flashes of pain to explode in the left shoulder of the Analog Interface. Obviously stung by the conversation, Root wouldn’t give the satisfaction of a scream or even a moan of pain, she only hissed briefly.

Then, as the shoulder popped back into place, the hacker sighed with relief. As they stared at each other in uncomfortable silence, Root smiled, stretched and reached for her shirt. As she slipped into it, the former ISA assassin walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where she grabbed two beers out of the fridge.

She approached the hacker as she came out of the bathroom and extended her hand, the unopened green bottle the only peace offering she was making that evening.

Root wasn’t having any. She shook her head sadly and headed for the door.

“Thanks for the patch up doc, I’ll be going now. I hope I don’t have to bother you again for awhile.”

Shaw frowned, confused.

“Root, where….”

The door to the apartment closed as the hacker headed down the hall, down the stairs and into the night.

….

Six weeks later, Shaw still hadn’t seen nor heard from Root. The Analogue Interface might have dropped of the face of the earth for all any on the team knew. Finch was off in Europe, running around with Grace, Reese and Fusco were stopping crime officially and unofficially while Shaw dealt with a daily stream of irrelevant numbers.

The weeks of Rootlessness had slowly turned Shaw into a snarling, combative operative that both Fusco and Reese avoided rather than face her biting tongue. No matter the innocent question or statement, the Persian turned it into an excuse to unleash sarcasm, vitriol and anger on anyone who happened to be in the general area.

Finally, Reese had had enough.

“OK, smiley, you and I are going to the gym and I’m going to beat your ass bloody.”

“In your dreams, brother.”

One hour later everyone who happened to be at Jeremy’s Gym were standing around the center ring watching as Shaw and Reese pummeled each other. The entire crowd was cheering as blow after blow reigned down from the two fighters gloved fists. Both were bloodied but neither would surrender as exhaustion began to creep up on them, robbing them first of their defensive speed.

Poetically, each unconsciously dropped their left hand slightly as they were simultaneously throwing right crosses. The impact came sickeningly and with one sound as each landed their punch, then crumpled under the power of the blows.

As each lay twitching on the canvas, stunned almost to the point of paralysis, a trainer jumped into the ring and declared the bout over. He reached down and helped first Shaw, then Reese to their feet, then directed each to hit the showers.

Reese looked over at the retreating form of the former ISA agent and shook his head.

 _Hope that helped or I may have gotten my ribs broken for nothing_.

….

The pair rode back to the subway in silence. Finally, Reese looked over at Shaw and asked.

“Do you want to talk about it? You realize since she’s been gone you’ve been gradually turning into someone even _we_ don’t want to be around. Your team building skills have always sucked, Shaw, but this is taking things to an extreme.

“What the hell is going on?”

Shaw was silent for so long Reese thought he wasn’t going to get an answer. Finally she looked over at him with such sadness and confusion he thought he was looking at another person.

“A few weeks ago, she came to my apartment all beat up again as usual. I came as close as I’ve ever come to telling her I cared for her. I did it in my own way since it’s the only way I know how to do things.

“She blew it off like I was just being my normal self and when she said ‘someone might think you care’ I lost it. I said ‘it’s obvious you don’t’ and she left, and I haven’t seen her since. I was ready to tell her how much I care for her, but she’s so devoted to that infernal Machine of hers, she won’t even listen to me when I try to tell her to be careful.

“I still thought it’d be OK, but when I grabbed two beers she refused to take the one I offered her and walked out, only saying she hoped she wouldn’t have to bother me again for awhile. I haven’t seen nor heard from her since.

“I don’t know what to do, Reese. Things have to change or I’m going to lose it. She says she cares for me, but since we defeated Samaritan, all she does is follow her goddess around wherever she instructs.

“She _doesn’t_ care about me, not really. I guess I’m tired and finished with being second fiddle to an Artificial Intelligence that holds her in the palm of its hand. I would have been willing to be an _equal_ part of this weird menage a trois but I’ll always be second fiddle to her infatuation with a bunch of transistors and code. And that’s unacceptable.”

Reese stared at the Persian firecracker. His eyes were a mixture of surprise and amusement.

“We’re going back to the subway and you’re going to learn a thing or two about your on again off again girlfriend.”

Shaw’s response was instantaneous and automatic.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

Reese snorted.

“We’ll see.”

….

The pair walked into the deserted subway station and walked over to the car that housed several monitors and some communications equipment. Reese sat down and started punching commands into the keyboard.

Shaw was smirking.

“Be careful, you don’t want to start a war or anything.”

Reese only raised an eyebrow.

“I know a thing or two about this. Come over here.”

Shaw approached the monitors and stood next to her teammate.

“You think she always puts you second, well I think you need to see something. I guess neither Finch nor I ever had the feeling you needed to see this, but now… well watch.”

Reese keyed a command and the monitor lit up. As Shaw saw the footage on the screen she gasped.

“Root, what the hell?”

The scene on the screen was the roof of a high-rise building. Root was looking into the camera and as the picture started she spoke.

_Root looked directly into the camera. “When you told me to stop looking for Shaw I did. But now I need you to help me. I can’t do this alone…” Root climbed onto the ledge wearing her high-heeled boots._

_“Harold taught you Blackjack and Chess,” she continued, “I wonder if he ever taught you how to play chicken… I’m going to walk across this ledge with my eyes closed until A, you help me find Sameen, or B, I fall tragically to my death.”_

Shaw’s heart was in her throat as she watched Root take a step, then another, falter then…

_“You’ve calculated the wind speed so you know how treacherous this is…You have to ask yourself what’s worse- the two of us working together or me, taking this next step alone.”_

_A brief pause, then Root looks directly into the camera._

_“Thanks for playing.” She hopped down to the roof._

Shaw looked up at Reese, not seeing him.

“Son of a bitch Root! What were you thinking?”

Reese reached for her hand.

“Not what, Shaw, who. She was thinking of you. And it’s been like that since Wall Street. But don’t forget, you never told her if you felt anything because, in your words, ‘I don’t do feelings.’

“Well Root does them, and maybe her running around throwing herself in harm’s way is just her way of dealing with feelings for a certain person she thinks aren’t reciprocated.”

Shaw turned back from Reese and stared into the monitor.

“Where is she?”

The monitor stayed black.

“Tell me or I’ll start shooting your servers. Eventually I’ll find one you need and it will begin to hurt.”

She pulled her Nano and put a bullet in the monitor.

“I am _not_ fucking around!”

One of the other monitors flickered to life. As the former ISA assassin turned toward it, coordinates appeared on the screen. Shaw pulled her phone and inputted the coordinates in her maps app.

Seconds later she looked up at Reese.

“She’s in a hotel six blocks from here.

“What room?”

Seconds later she got to her feet.

“I’m going. Don’t know when I’ll be back”

She started out of the subway car, then hesitated, turning back to Reese.

“And John…. thanks.”

Reese nodded at her back.

….

Room 609 was the first room on the right when Shaw stepped out of the elevator. She took the key card the front desk had so _graciously_ provided ( _either I get the key or I’ll have DEA in her by the time you guys leave for dinner and I’ll tell management you ratted them out. Now give me the key and go back to setting up your little drug deals._ ) and slipped it into the lock.

When the door opened, she couldn’t see anything at first. The blackout curtains were closed and all the lights were off. As Shaw stepped quietly into the room she heard a weak, but familiar voice.

“I think you broke into the wrong room asshole. There’s a 9mm pointed at your head.”

“Root?”

The lights clicked on. The hacker was lying in one of the beds, gun pointed at Shaw. Her face reflected confusion and exhaustion as she stared at the Persian.

“Shaw? What are you doing here?”

As the hacker lowered her gun, Shaw turned and closed the door, then approached the bed. She noted the state of the other bed, bloodied and disheveled, then looked over at the Machine’s Analog Interface.

“She almost got you killed this time, didn’t she? And you came here to try to nurse yourself back to health? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Shaw pulled back the sheet covering the hacker and looked away. Root’s body was a landscape of bruises in yellow, blue, purple and black. Three wounds, two of which looked like bullet wounds had been stitched awkwardly and showed signs of infection. Then there was the overall appearance of the hacker, who had lost ten pounds minimum that she couldn’t afford to lose.

Root watched silently as Shaw examined her. When she shook her head and gazed into the hacker’s eyes, her own pain was obvious.

“We need to get you out of this shit hole and someplace where I can properly patch you up. Do you have any clothes we can get on you?”

Root’s eyes filled with tears.

“You can just go, Shaw. I told you I wasn’t going to bother you for awhile. I can take care of myself.”

“You obviously can’t based on the way you are right now. Let’s get you to my place.”

“No thanks, I told you I can take care….”

Shaw slammed her hand down on the nightstand.

“No you can’t! Dammit Root, you’re seriously injured, your presenting infection and possible sepsis. You’re emaciated and if you don’t get some antibiotics then some proper nutrition you could die.”

“Then you won’t have to patch me up anymore, Shaw. I don’t want to be a pain in your ass, so why don’t you just leave me alone.”

The former ISA assassin walked around to the empty side of the bed and sat down. She stared at Root for a long, uncomfortable time, then looked toward the blacked out windows. When she looked back at the hacker, Root almost gasped.

There were tears in Shaw’s eyes.

“I didn’t want to have this conversation until you felt better, but I guess it’s now or never. This morning, Reese showed me security footage of you and Finch on the roof of a high rise somewhere in Manhattan. It opened my eyes to a few things.

“I was wrong, Root. I thought you cared so much for your AI goddess that you’d never consider us. Yes that’s right us- you and me. I believed that you racing in and out, always on some errand for “Her”, meant that there was no place for me except as a convenient distraction to be visited when the need arose.

“The insane and reckless stunt you pulled on that roof showed me you at least cared, and my place in whatever this is between us is more than I believed.”

Shaw wiped almost angrily at her eyes.

“You said the last time I saw you, ‘be careful Shaw, someone might think _you cared_.’

“Well I do care, more than I ever have, more than I ever wanted to have. I don’t know how to describe this, but the emptiness when you’re not around sucks. The last six weeks have been bad, Root… I’ve not only missed you and your obnoxious flirting, I’ve regretted what I’ve said every day since you walked out.

“And when I said to you that it was obvious you didn’t care, I didn’t mean it. It was something I just said trying to hurt you because of the hurt I was experiencing. And it’s a hurt I’ve never felt before so I don’t know how to process it.

“I said I don’t do feelings, but you’ve caused me more feelings than anyone ever. I don’t know what to do with them, I don’t know how to deal with them and I don’t know how to reciprocate them.

“I do know this- when you’re not around, my world is emptier than when you’re here. I know that when you’re gone I feel like part of me is missing. I know that when I see you, not like this of course, I feel good inside, like when I’ve eaten a particularly good meal.

“Anyway, I care Root, more than I ever cared about someone since I lost my father. I care and want us to be something, _anything_ that’s not like the last six weeks have been. I was angry with you for not caring about me, but the scene on the roof showed me how stupid and petty I was acting.

“If you’ll forgive me and let me take you home and patch you up, we can start to figure out what this is and what it might be down the road.

“Do you think we could?”

Root smiled up at the Persian firecracker, tears still wet on her cheeks. She reached for Shaw’s hand, then winced as the pain hit her. Shaw’s eyes widened as she reached out her own hand to still the hacker’s movement.

Root’s smile reappeared.

“Take me home Sameen.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to know what you think.


End file.
